All Chapters of DIAMOND HART: Chapter 71 - Chapter 78

Starr found the old notebook by accident, tucked into a box of things she'd finally worked up the courage to unpack from storage now that her apartment had slowly, steadily become a home built for three instead of one. The cover was worn soft at the edges, her handwriting from years ago cramped and urgent across every page, half finished stories she'd abandoned somewhere around the same time she'd decided the safest thing to be in life was unshakeable.She sat on the floor of her closet for nearly an hour, reading pages she barely remembered writing, watching an entirely different version of herself unfold across the paper, someone hopeful and unguarded in a way she hadn't let herself be again until Christopher walked into her life and slowly, patiently, coaxed that person back out of hiding."What's that?" Christopher asked later that evening, finding her at the kitchen table with the notebook open in front of her and a fresh page of her laptop glowing blank and waiti

Tradition, according to Starr's mother, dictated that the bride and groom not see each other the night before the wedding, and though Starr had scoffed initially, insisting she didn't put much stock in tradition for tradition's sake, she found herself surprisingly moved by the small ritual of it, gathered in her mother's living room with Sorcha, Heather, and her mother, Iris asleep in a portable crib in the corner while Christopher spent the night at Magnus and Valentine's apartment across town."Nervous?" her mother asked, settling a warm cup of tea into Starr's hands, the same way she had every difficult evening throughout Starr's childhood, as though tea alone had the power to steady whatever storm was passing through."Not the way I expected to be," Starr admitted, wrapping her hands around the cup. "I thought I'd be anxious about the ceremony itself, the speeches, all of it. But mostly I just feel this enormous, quiet certainty. Like I've been walking toward this

The reception spilled out onto a wide lawn strung with the same warm lights from the ceremony, long tables set beneath a canopy of trees, the smell of jollof rice and grilled meat drifting from a catering setup Sorcha had insisted include every dish that mattered to their family. Starr sat at the head table beside Christopher, her new ring catching the last of the evening light, watching the whole scene unfold with a happiness so complete it almost felt unfamiliar."Time for speeches," Magnus announced loudly, tapping his glass with far more enthusiasm than the utensil probably deserved, standing before anyone had officially cued him. "As best man, and honestly, as the man most responsible for this entire relationship existing in the first place, I demand the floor.""You did not single-handedly cause this relationship," Starr called out, laughing."I dragged you to that club, didn't I?" Magnus said, unbothered. "I rest my case." He cleared his throat theatrical

Magnus had promised, months ago, an absolutely enormous wedding, and true to his word, the venue he and Valentine finally settled on could comfortably have hosted three separate events, string lights wrapped around every available surface, an actual champagne tower positioned dramatically near the entrance that Valentine had fought against for weeks before finally, exhaustedly, surrendering."You look like you're about to be sick," Christopher observed, adjusting Magnus's bow tie in the small anteroom where the groomsmen had gathered, Valentine somewhere on the other side of the building with his own small group."I am not about to be sick," Magnus said, entirely unconvincingly, his hands shaking slightly as he smoothed down his lapels for the fifth time in as many minutes. "I have simply never wanted anything to go this perfectly in my entire life, and the pressure of that is doing something concerning to my digestive system.""You proposed to him on a rooftop